European University Institute Library

Participatory democracy in Southern Europe, causes, characteristics and consequences, edited by Joan Font, Donatella della Porta and Yves Sintomer

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Participatory democracy in Southern Europe

bibliography

869262136

edited by Joan Font, Donatella della Porta and Yves Sintomer

causes, characteristics and consequences

Citizen participation is a central component of democratic governance. As participatory schemes have grown in number and gained in social legitimacy over recent years, the research community has analyzed the virtues of participatory policies from several points of view, but usually giving focus to the most successful and well-known grass-roots cases. This book examines a wider range of participatory interventions that have been created or legitimized by central governments, providing original exploration of institutional democratic participatory mechanisms. Looking at a huge variety of subnational examples across Italy, Spain and France, the book interrogates the rich findings of a substantial research project. The authors use quantitative and qualitative methods to compare why these cases of participatory mechanisms have emerged, how they function, and what cultural impact they've achieved. This allows highly original insights into why participatory mechanisms work in some places, but not others, and the sorts of choices that organizers of participatory processes have to consider when creating such policies.--, Provided by Publisher

Introduction / Joan Font, Donatella della Porta and Yves Sintomer -- The national and regional contexts of participatory experiences / Yves Sintomer and Eloísa del Pino -- The causes of local participation / Joan Font, Dolores Sesma and Paloma Fontcuberta -- Institutional participatory initiatives and democratic qualities / Donatella della Porta, Herbert Reiter and Pau Alarcón -- Citizens and participation / Joan Font, Carolina Galais, Magdalena Wojcieszak and Pau Alarcón -- The cultural consequences of engagement in participatory processes / María Jesús Funes, Julien Talpin and Mathias Rull -- Conclusion / Donatella della Porta, Joan Font and Yves Sintomer -- Appendix 1: Experience databases: research protocols -- Appendix 2: Municipalities and the initiation of participatory processes: two databases -- Appendix 3: Contextual case studies: research protocol and case selection -- Appendix 4: Surveys used in the book -- Appendix 5: Case studies about cultural effects: data collection protocol